Quick Reference - Character Sets
Part of Character Sets · GCSE GCSE Computer Science revision
This key facts covers Quick Reference - Character Sets within Character Sets for GCSE Computer Science. Revise Character Sets in 3.3 Data Representation for GCSE Computer Science with 15 exam-style questions and 18 flashcards. This topic appears less often, but it can still be a useful differentiator on mixed-topic papers. It is section 10 of 11 in this topic. Use this key facts to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 10 of 11
Practice
15 questions
Recall
18 flashcards
Quick Reference - Character Sets
ASCII Quick Codes:
- Space = 32
- Digits: '0'=48 to '9'=57
- Uppercase: 'A'=65 to 'Z'=90
- Lowercase: 'a'=97 to 'z'=122
- Lowercase = Uppercase + 32
Character Set Evolution:
- 1960s: ASCII invented (128 characters, English)
- 1980s: Extended ASCII (256 characters, regional)
- 1991: Unicode created (universal standard)
- Today: UTF-8 dominates (95% of web pages)
Why Unicode Won:
- One standard for ALL languages (no more code pages!)
- Backward compatible with ASCII
- Emoji support 😀
- UTF-8 is efficient for English while supporting everything
Keep building this topic
Read this section alongside the surrounding pages in Character Sets. That gives you the full topic sequence instead of a single isolated revision point.
Practice Questions for Character Sets
How many bits does standard ASCII use to represent each character?
Explain why using Unicode to store a text file produces a larger file than using ASCII to store the same text.
Quick Recall Flashcards
15 questions on Character Sets — practise free
Instant marking, adaptive difficulty, and 18 spaced repetition flashcards. Free until your GCSEs.
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